Tooth decay and dental disease can be caused by bacterial action resulting from the formation of plaque about the teeth and/or the entrapment of food particles between the teeth and interstices therebetween. The removal of plaque and entrapped food particles reduces the incidence of caries, gingivitis, and mouth odors as well as generally improving oral hygiene. Conventional brushing has been found to be inadequate for removing all entrapped food particles and plaque. To supplement brushing, dental flosses and tapes have been recommended. The term "dental floss", as used herein, is defined to include both dental flosses, dental tapes, threads and any similar article.
Dental floss is typically distributed in dispensers that have circular bobbins rotatably mounted therein. Each bobbin is formed of a core that has been wound with dental floss. The tail end of floss from the bobbin is typically threaded first through an eyelet at the top of the dispenser and then through a cut bar that is also positioned at the top of the dispenser. In order to draw a length of floss from the dispenser, a user grasps the tail end of the floss, pulls until the desired length of floss has been drawn from the dispenser, and then cuts the drawn length using the cut bar. As the user pulls the floss from the dispenser, the bobbin in the dispenser rotates, thereby allowing the floss on the bobbin to unwind.
During the manufacturing and assembly of dental floss products, automated winding machines are used to wind floss onto empty bobbin cores. These winding machines often function at a high speed and may wind many yards of dental floss each minute. After the dental floss is wound onto bobbin cores, the wound cores must then be loaded and threaded into dispenser inserts. Each dispenser insert typically includes a core holder for rotatably supporting the wound core when the wound core is positioned within a dispenser case. The eyelet and cut bar discussed above are typically part of and integral with the dispenser insert. After a wound core has been loaded on and threaded through the eyelet and cut bar in the dispenser insert, the dispenser insert is then placed within the dispenser case, and the lid to the dispenser case is closed.
At present, a significant percentage of dental floss products sold worldwide are assembled by hand. Although various systems have been proposed for assembling dental floss products in an automated fashion, these automated systems have suffered from several drawbacks. These drawbacks stemmed, at least in part, from the need to bring several components of the product (namely, the wound bobbin, the dispenser insert and the dispenser case) together simultaneously at the point of final assembly. In known systems, elaborate indexing systems were required to bring these components together in synchronization. Besides being complicated and expensive, these indexing systems had many moving parts and were therefore subject to breakdown.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an efficient and cost-effective automated system for assembling dental floss products.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an automated system for assembling dental floss products that does not require the use of multiple indexing systems.
These and still other objects of the invention will become apparent upon study of the accompanying drawings and description of the invention.